Cereal companies have employed toy or other premiums inside boxes or containers to stimulate consumer interest in their products. Rings, toys, books, comics and the like have been included in boxes or affixed to food or beverage containers to add value to the purchase of a particular cereal or snack. Producers of other products such as packaged goods and foodstuffs sold in cans, bottles, cones, tubes rolls, tubs or other containers have found it difficult, expensive or otherwise impractical to add a "premium play element" or collectible value to their products because there has not been an efficient and cost effective method to consistently deliver the premium to the consumer without investing in other equipment to insert the premium into or onto a package.
Cereal boxes provide a large, dry environment for reception of a toy or other premiums, while cans, tubs, bottles and other containers do not allow for the insertion of premiums because of the potential contamination and safety hazards for consumers. To place an item on the exterior of a package traditionally has necessitated additional packaging equipment that may not otherwise be available to the packager. Production line speeds can be reduced and the reconfiguration of a manufacturing or packaging line adds time and expense to the product that devalues the added up-front costs associated with including the premium in the food product. Premiums are therefore unlikely to be added or to be used by a variety of packagers.
The backs of labels have been used to deliver coupons or special messages for consumers but they have been limited to standard printing inks and paper, with no real play or collectible value for children. The addition of each type of unique play premium to packaging labels or wrappers creates its own unique problems since the addition of pigments, or materials to the back surface of a label can raise the premium above the surface of the label material. Labels are generally dispensed from magazines or trays during assembly and the automated addition of the label to the food or beverage requires that the label sit flat and provide an essentially uniform thickness throughout to avoid reconfiguration of the labeling assembly and to maintain uniformity and accuracy in the process of adding the labels.
Holographic images are known. Despite their attraction to children and adults, holograms are virtually impossible to efficiently deliver as a collectible premium on many consumer products because of their cost in manufacture, the need for additional equipment to facilitate the addition of the hologram to a product and the rate at which the assembly process must normally be slowed to facilitate hologram placement and assembly.
In general, there are two types of holograms that are commercially available at a reduced cost. These include "hot stamp" type holograms and polyester film holograms. Both "hot-stamp" and polyester holograms present challenges when they are adapted for packaging. "Hot-stamp" holograms are stamped into rolls or sheets of a polymeric carrier film coated with metal. This synthetic film is transferred onto a substrate using a heated metal form that stamps or transfers the holographic image onto paper under the film using a combination of pressure and heat, creating a slight indentation in the area of contact between the form and the packaging. This "hot-stamping" method has been used to transfer holographic images to relatively thick substrates such as baseball cards, cereal boxes or some types of magazine covers. It is a particularly slow and expensive process. This process is not suitable for most labels or wrappers for food, beverage or other consumer product packaging because the combination of pressure and heat used in the form stamping the holograms causes the paper or material that is being stamped to "deboss" or cause an indentation in the area of the stamping. This results in an uneven stack of labels or wrappers in a tray or magazine which would prevent consistent application of the labels using rapid, automated processes. In addition, holograms prepared by "hot-stamping" run the risk of flaking or cracking from the substrate to which they have been applied. "Hot-stamped" holograms would require careful manipulation so that the "hot-stamping" method for hologram delivery onto labels that would be wrapped around or affixed to cans, bottles or other containers become impractical and virtually impossible because of the uneven nature of the "hot-stamped" label.
Polyester or other synthetic film holograms have been used for children's stickers and security devices. These film holograms are also not practical for use on consumer packaging such as a label. Heat, for example, can cause synthetic films to melt, distort, stretch, burn or jam during the packaging process. Addition of these holograms to packaging generally requires the reconfiguration of the packing or labeling equipment. Many synthetic films are more expensive than paper and the added cost of these films onto food packaging becomes economically prohibitive. In addition, the film does not have the same application properties as labels comprising paper. The films require expensive resins, solvents or hot glues for application. Films may also conduct static electricity and the film tends to curl when it is cut and placed in a tray or magazine thereby making it undesirable for automated labeling schemes. In addition, the films may be affected by the heat or cold of the cans, packages or containers as they exit the manufacturing line off of a cooker, bottling equipment, or the like. Most films are not environmentally safe since they do not readily decompose. This feature makes this product unsuitable for use on consumer packaging in several states and therefore generally precludes the use of these materials for labels or wrappers in consumer packaging destined for widespread geographic distribution.
Metallic or reflective papers have been used to create dimension for advertisement printing, for example, on beer can labeling and fish food. These printed labels include holographic prism-like patterns or other simple repeating geometric shapes that provide a repetitive reflective background and printed images can be positioned over the reflective surface. The reflective surface attracts and reflects light to create an attractive printed label. Methods for producing this paper and for producing the simple repeating geometric shapes creating a reflective hologram-like effect is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,858 to Mickka et al. This type of paper has little intrinsic value as a play piece or as a collectible item to the consumer or as a value added item on product identifiers and advertising.
Preferred collectible images for labels must be positioned with accuracy on the label surface to fit within the confines of the overall label. For example, a large image taking up 25% or more of the label needs to be repeatably positioned relative to the edges of the label to facilitate automation. Mickka et al., do not disclose methods to provide the positioning accuracy that would permit a single large image, for example, to be centrally positioned on a consumer product wrapper or label. It is also virtually impossible to print in register on holographic film after a registered hologram has been stamped into the material since film holograms are produced in rolls, and a second step of printing registration is difficult to control and results in tremendous waste and inefficiency. The rolls or webs that are used to stamp holograms on film are narrow, adding to the expense and inefficiency since labels are generally produced on wide web or sheet fed presses. In order to obtain a registered image, the rolls must be cut after stamping.